Friday, 8 November 2013

30 Of The Most Powerful Images Ever

A picture is worth a
thousand words, but not all pictures are created equal. The pictures we
usually feature on Bored Panda can be cute, beautiful, funny, or
enchanting, but these pictures are powerful. They are gripping and
unforgettable because of the volumes they speak about the human
condition – about some of the best and worst moments of contemporary
human existence.

We should warn our readers that some of
these pictures may upset them, while others may fill them with joy. But
that’s precisely because these images reflect some of the best and worst
parts of the human experience and world events. Our post of must-see photos from the past
described our history while these photos, for the most part, describe
our present – our suffering and our triumphs, our perseverance and our
failures, our compassion and our hatred, our intelligence and our
stupidity.

Some of these photographs may mean more
to some of our readers than to others. But hopefully, they will remind
us all that the world can always use a little bit more love, tolerance,
compassion and understanding.

P.S: we always try our best to credit
each and every photographer, but sometimes it’s impossible to track some
of them. Please leave a comment if you know the missing authors.

9. A firefighter gives water to a koala during the devastating Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, Australia, in 2009

10. Terri Gurrola is reunited with her daughter after serving in Iraq for 7 months

11. Indian homeless men wait to receive free food distributed outside a mosque ahead of Eid al-Fitr in New Delhi, India

Image credits: Tsering Topgyal / AP

12. Zanjeer the dog saved thousands of lives during Mumbai serial
blasts in March 1993 by detecting more than 3,329 kgs of the explosive
RDX, 600 detonators, 249 hand grenades and 6406 rounds of live
ammunition. He was buried with full honors in 2000

17. Five-year-old gypsy boy on New Year’s Eve 2006 in the gypsy
community of St. Jacques, Perpignan, Southern France. It is quite common
in St. Jacques for little boys to smoke

18. Hhaing The Yu, 29, holds his face in his hand as rain falls on
the decimated remains of his home near Myanmar’s capital of Yangon
(Rangoon). In May 2008, cyclone Nargis struck southern Myanmar, leaving
millions homeless and claiming more than 100,000 lives

25. Greg Cook hugs his dog Coco after finding her inside his destroyed home in Alabama following the Tornado in March, 2012

26. Demonstration of condom usage at a public market in Jayapura, capital of Papua, 2009

27. Russian soldiers preparing for the Battle of Kursk, July 1943

Image credits: Shirak Karapetyan-Milshtein Update: Our reader Leif-Erik pointed out that this photograph was
actually created in 2006-2007 for a photo competition. It is based on
archive photos from the war in Russia in 1941-1945.

28. During massive floods in Cuttack City, India, in 2011, a heroic
villager saved numerous stray cats by carrying them with a basket
balanced on his head